Homecoming 5K

(Post-race)


Caitlin won her age group. Nathan might have, had he not been pushing the stroller loaded with the two littlest. Still a fun race. I love this race because I know I am not going to finish last. I was finisher #1416 of 1803.

Next year we'll be in the 40-49 age group! ACK!!!!

Father's & Sons 2014

Favorite campout all year--the Father's & Sons. My boys really love each other and love spending time together. It rained the entire drive up, but stopped when they arrived. Thank goodness there were no soggy s'mores. They got a slower start than hoped for, which meant dinner was pretty late . . . and there was rain as Nathan went to bed, but they stayed dry in the tent. The suburban definitely needed a car wash when they got back, so that equates to a success?
I think so.

So excited to haul around the backpack while getting ready to go

Ladderball and my favorite boys. The setting isn't bad either, is it?

Close friends

Nathan really loves cooking on a campout. While many of the dads are content with hot dogs (not to mention their sons), he wants to eat a real meal and goes the extra mile to make a tin foil dinner happen. I don't think the boys appreciate it now very much, but they might some day in the future.

We were camera-free, but I took the girls out to dinner and we got the "Muppets Most Wanted" from Red Box. Then in the morning we went to Hobby Lobby. I am used to going with Ed and trying to get out of there as quickly as possible, and without breaking anything. They, however, loved it and we stayed for well over an hour, walking up and down most every aisle just to see what was for sale.

Summer 2014: Week 9

This was another great week!

Monday was my b-day, and I asked Nathan to take the day off.

We went to Red Rocks, to show the kids. It is such a great structure and I don't know if there will be a concert I ever want to take all of them too. We spent about an hour looking around and in the museum. For fun I took pictures of the list of people who played at Red Rocks in 1975. Some I know, some I've only heard of.

Horribly blurry, I know but if you click the photo it will get big enough so you can read the names. Mom.

We went piano shopping and ate lunch at a nearby park. It was perfect weather. We made it home in time to take Caitlin to an appointment with the orthopaedic doctor. This time she got a removable cast and we'll go back in one week for another x-ray. It looks pretty good.

We ate the best grilled burgers of the summer, and finished last year's frozen peaches with ice cream for dessert.


Tuesday there was a LOT of rain. A nearby town got 4 inches in about 2 hours and had some severe flooding. We had a lot of water, too but not the flooding. Bryn went to a nursing home to do a talent show for YW. Tuesday night Nathan & Andrew worked on Cooking merit badge requirements. We canned 18 pints of black beans, but only 17 sealed.

Wednesday morning was the Lego Movie at the summer $1 movies. They had 3 sold out theaters! Our friends were able to save seats, we sat in the perfect row and used all of it except 2 seats. Later that afternoon, the BYU Idaho dancers gave some dance instruction to the 12-18 year olds, so I took our friend, his cousin, Andrew & Bryn. Their mom kept the other 3 at home with her little ones. It was fun to watch Andrew & Bryn get well outside their comfort zone. If I'd taken pictures, they would be banned, but I didn't have my camera. Later that evening, the dancers gave a free performance at a nearby high school. I took the girls on a date to watch them.

Thursday evening the girls and I had another date. Some friends were starring in Seussical, so we went to watch them. It was a great production & fun to know some of the cast. Andrew babysat for some boys in our ward so their mom could come, too, and I think he was happier to make money than attend.

Friday night we had a ward party at a park. Perfect weather, ultimate frisbee, and fun chatting with friends.

Most of our day times this week were fairly lazy. That was intentional, because the pace picks up next week with appointments and shopping to get ready for school. Even though I say lazy--it isn't really. Everyone practices piano and has jobs to do--walking the dog or taking care of homes/yards while friends and neighbors are out of town. Band camp & piano lessons as well.

Saturday we planned to get up early, but that didn't happen. We worked on our finances & around the house.We watched BYU gymnastics as we made dinner. I let Ed fall asleep in my bed.

Sunday is fast Sunday and then another week!

(2 weeks of summer left).

Summer 2014: Week7

Our favorite scouts

Deer at the campsite

Rainbow . . . it rained a lot

This week was Scout camp . . . which meant boys, dirt and fun for Nathan.

For me it meant insomnia and quiet after bedtime. My best sleep this week was Saturday night when they were home.

The boys left early Monday morning (5 am meeting time at the church). They drove to the closest scout camp, Bendelatour. They had no cell phone reception, which was a blessing and a curse. Andrew was in Rifle, Archery, Environmental Science and Emergency Preparedness.
He finished all the requirements for them, and made headway on the cooking merit badge.

Monday we went to the orthodontist . . . Bryn is ready for the next phase. We hosted my brother, sister in law, and mom for the night.

Tuesday we had my mom here. She read and sewed and my kids love having her. We drove my mom to meet my brother & sister in law closer to the airport.

Wednesday I spoke to Nathan in the morning and we spent time with friends in the afternoon.

TH was the last day of swim team practice & piano lessons. Took my sewing machine to be repaired. Spent time with the same friends as Wednesday, one more day.

FR we were lazy all day, except for these parts: Picnic at park with friends for lunch, grocery shopping with 4 children, feeding the sister missionaries (our first garden zucchini!!), and working as a team to can 16 pints of chicken. All sealed & no breaks. My girls loved helping . . . in the past I've not let them touch the raw chicken, so they enjoyed that step.

SAT morning the boys called around 9 am. They were coming home! We put the last 8 jars of chicken in. Andrew showered and got ready for a baseball game. I dropped him off for his ride to the game and went to the temple, a friend went for the first time. Nathan took the chicken off the heat, fed the kids lunch and went to the game. After dinner, we went to see the Secret Garden--a choral version. Our friend played Collin--the main reason we went. Late night . . . . but worth it.

SUN I subbed in Bryn's Sunday School class and learned that 12 & 13 year olds are different from who I normally teach. She also said that she didn't want me to be her regular teacher . . .

Summer is flying now!

Summer: Week 3

This week:

M: Is always laundry day. We made 7 pints of Strawberry & Blueberry freezer jam, one of our favorite flavors. One pint was gone by Wednesday.

T: Andrew skipped his Young Men's activity to go to an 8:00pm baseball game. After a streak of disappointing losses, this time they won!
I took Caitlin, Diana, and Ed to the old fashioned candy store in old town. The girls complained about the $.50 price ceiling I gave them, but eventually found something they wanted. Ed chose pixie sticks, (2 so he could give one to Andrew) and the girls picked out taffy.

W: Swim meet. Very windy but OK. We brought SPOT IT, a game we learned at the Neuffer's last summer. I left in the middle to go to a different pool for lessons for the littlest among us. Friends commented on our children's progress in the pool, that felt good. Our friends came over for lunch.

TH: What happened TH? Maybe this was the day I asked Bryn to braid my hair?

It was taking a long time . . . and then I realized she'd done fishtail braids . . . and it all made sense. But I think it was Wednesday.

Now I remember TH night. My parents came to see our new furniture.

FR: Nathan took the girls camping in Rocky Mountain National Park. A dad in our ward said he was going with his girls. It turned into 10 + families of dads & daughters. They came home the long way and saw a lot of wildlife.

Nathan thought this campground can accommodate 1000 people.

Beautiful girls, beautiful scenery

The boys and I went to a local pizza restaurant (where they hand toss--so fun to watch). Then, we did our duty and helped clean the church. The next morning we went on a long walk together. Very pleasant time with my boys. We may have also had a sewing machine lesson . . . but I was not allowed to take photos. Baseball practice and more shopping. The day ended with Monsters University from Red box, which Ed and I hadn't seen. Very cute show.

3 weeks down, 8 more.

Sidenote about life in CO:
One of Andrew's friends was at snowboarding camp this week. They keep it open until August . . . then the snow is done for the season. Can't believe it.

One more reason we want the Temple close

We just don't go to the Temple in bad weather . . . this is why.
Denver 104 car pile up

It will be nice not to have to get on I-25 to go to the Temple.

I drove on I-25 yesterday morning, but not to Denver. I was on it for 30 long minutes from Ft. Collins to just south of Longmont. I saw no fewer than 10 cars off the road, three pointed in the wrong direction and several on their sides. It was a harrowing experience--but could have been much worse.

"Biblical" flooding

This is what scares me the most . . . . erosion, makes that road look like a cracker

Our basement is dry and we are in no danger of flooding at this point. (We live on a hill).
My parents had a small amount of water damage in their basement. We've experienced emotions of guilt at not experiencing more personal loss . . . the damage this flood has caused throughout our state will be felt for a long time. It spread hundreds of miles and affects millions of people. We will have opportunities to serve.

The Coloradoan, our local paper, posted an aerial view of many areas in our county. If you click on THIS LINK, you will arrive at the Coloradoan homepage. About one third of the way down, there are some videos . . . one of them is titled "Aerial tour of Fort Collins, Loveland flooding."

Nathan's office is the green roof at 1:24 in the video. . . . the parking lot that's almost completely submerged. There was water on the east and the north. Around 50 people bagged 7 tons of dirt yesterday morning to prevent penetration. So far, it looks like the water has stayed out, and it has receded today to leave the parking lot dry.

We were not the hardest hit, by any means, but seeing this video brought home the damage a little more.

School was cancelled on FR. The kids were elated to stay home. I don't think they understood the magnitude, so we watched the news together last night--then they knew a little more.

The photos tell the story really well . . . destruction everywhere. I was in Lafayette, CO this morning. One of the Boulder residents told me that of 50 bridges in Boulder County, 30 were gone. Washed away. I crossed both the St. Vrain and Big Thompson rivers on I-25 and was surprised to see with my own eyes how high the water is. Lots of people out taking pictures and a big slow down in traffic as everyone slowed down to see.

If you want to see more . . . there are thousands. I grabbed the one above from the link below. You might laugh, you will be shocked, you might cry. Take time for the captions.
9 News Photo Gallery

A couple more facts . . . the average rainfall in our area is 12-15 inches. Many communities got nearly that much in 24-48 hours. The other interesting tidbit is that one inch of rain is comparable to 10 inches of snow . . . for example Red Feather Lakes, who had 14 inches in these storms, had the equivalent moisture of 140 inches of snow--well over 10 feet.

It's going to be an interesting school year. . . day before Labor Day weekend was cancelled due to excessive heat in UN-airconditioned buildings, this Friday for excessive rain . . . guess what's coming next???
SNOW!

More to come as Colorado re-builds.

 

Fort Collins, Colorado Temple Groundbreaking

From my point of view:

Yesterday was the groundbreaking. My dad and mom had been invited a few weeks ago by their stake president. For the past month, in our Sacrament meetings they've read a letter asking us to attend at our stake center, where it would be broadcast via satellite. They said there are currently 12 stakes in our temple district, (and predicted that number may increase by the time it is built). That would be too many to attend, so it was made available by satellite for the majority. FYI, the temple district spans Northern Colorado , Southeast WY, and SW Nebraska, from Boulder to the Southwest, and Casper, WY, to the Northwest, my hometown.

At 8:30 am yesterday, our home teacher, who is a member of our stake presidency called.
I answered.
"How would you like to go to the temple site this morning for the groundbreaking?" he asked.
I began crying and said that we'd love to.
Several families we know received phone calls like this. Initially the plan was to keep the numbers lower, but in the 12 hours preceding the event, Elder George F. Rhodes, who is an Area Authority Seventy, asked that a few more families be invited to attend.

We arrived around 9:30 am, with the program scheduled to begin at 10.

The scene as we approached.

There were many seats, but they were filled, we stood at the back, on the right.

From my point of view. Our church building is north of the site, across the street.

The program

Ronald. A Rasband speaking. Later, he dedicated the land for temple construction.

I did not record the ceremony, or even take notes, but Elder Rasband did read this quote,
“Every foundation stone that is laid for a Temple, and every Temple completed according to the order the Lord has revealed for his holy Priesthood, lessens the power of Satan on the earth, and increases the power of God and Godliness.”
—President George Q. Cannon (from lds.org).

This temple is a unique design, and will be equal in size to the Denver Temple. It is in line to be the 155th operating temple, but that is subject to change based on how quickly the construction on it and others progresses. It is expected to be complete in 2015 or 2016. (As of the groundbreaking date, there are 141 in operation worldwide).

He offered a prayer of dedication--dedicating the land for building. What impressed me about it was that it included praying for the safety of those who would work there. 

This video (20 seconds long), is the closing hymn.

After the closing prayer, which was given by the stake president, Millard Smathers, from Casper, WY (my hometown), many groups were invited to come dig into the soil. The Coloradoan published a great photo of civic and community leaders on their website, listed below. They also interviewed Nathan as we were getting ready to leave. It is not a long story, but he did get his name in the Coloradoan article mentioned below.

My parents, who in 1968 drove from Washington, D.C. to Logan UT, to be married in the temple.

Our family

It is hard to describe the emotions I felt, but here's my attempt.
I felt grateful to be invited.
I wished that more of my close friends could see it in person, yet I understand the reasoning behind keeping it small.
I feel happy that the temple will be so close, and excited that we will be able to share it with members of the community when it is completed and open during the open house.
I feel enthusiasm that my children will be able to see it built from the ground up.
I feel proud to be an American, where religious freedom allows us to worship in the temple.

Here are some relevant links:

Official Site: Fort Collins Colorado Temple

Coloradoan article on the Groundbreaking

More information from LDS church about temples

You Tube video with a 3D view of Fort Collins, CO Temple design


(Over the next two years as the building progresses, I will continue to post updates. If you want to see all of them, click on "a temple in our city" in the label cloud at the right).

JustServe

Our area of the world will be participating in a pilot program for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

It is an initiative to get members serving in our own communities. It is being piloted in Dallas, TX; San Jose, CA, and Denver, CO (but stretching into the SE corner of WY). We were in Cheyenne today and had an awesome lesson on it. There's a website you can check out here: JustServe.org

I looked it up tonight and there are lots of local opportunities already listed: from driving persons who don't have vehicles or access to them, to community kitchen help, to planting trees from last year's fires . . . and more and more.

This is going to work & I am happy to become a part of it. The timing of choosing our area is no coincidence--it is going to build bridges for the future when the temple is here. So exciting!!!!

Buried

My kids are still hoping for a snow day to be called for tomorrow. I doubt it, but we do have a LOT of snow.
It's close to a foot. It came down really fast.
Nathan never changes out of his suit on Sundays, but today he put on his jeans to go shovel. His white shirt stayed on.
Lots of shoveling today--he completely cleared the driveway 3 times so we could get in and out.

Through a window

Our friend brought his 4 wheeler to church to clear the sidewalks at the building. The evening meetings were all cancelled.

(After shoveling 30,000 lbs of snow, then he came in and baked 6 loaves of bread. 3 banana, 3 whole wheat. I made hot chocolate, dinner, and wrote 3 blog posts. Not bad for a day at home).

Heavy Laden

Wednesday we had our first snow of the year. Many of our leaves had not fallen, which trapped the wet snow in the trees, weighing down branches. I spent 10 or 15 minutes shaking the snow off this tree. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to reach high enough, and that branch snapped.

It was miraculous to watch the other tree respond to my efforts to remove the snow. Branches that had been hanging low to the ground rebounded into almost normal positions once their burdens were lightened. I wish I'd been able to save this one.

I don't know numbers that demonstrate the extent of the damage, but here is a link to the local newspaper with photos showing damage and cleanup. Parts of CSU were closed because of the damage to campus trees. We know a family whose tree falling broke through a window of the house. Loveland schools were closed because power was out. My hairdresser took the day off because of the school closure/power outage, and stayed home in her cold house all day.

I remembered a quote I wrote down in high school, "Learn to bend, it's easier than breaking."

Mission accomplished

We found a lovely place to rent in CO.

It is approaching quickly, we have only three Sundays left after today!

It reminds me of the "Glen" in Glenview, though I don't think it's quite as expensive (for my Chicago readers). High density living with common parks, workout room, and party room if you want to rent it. Bring your rollerblades when you plan to visit. Our house is tucked away--no houses on the other side of the street. Three children are registered for school. We will be 3 stoplights from the freeway . . . which Nathan will be using. The plan is to stay for a year or two as we save for a house, and then buy close to this one. It costs slightly less than what we were paying in Chicago, but 40% more than here. The city we are moving to is very environmentally "green," cyclist friendly, and growing. It is going to be great. Several times on our trip I used the words "almost too good to be true" to describe my feelings about living there.